Hulme, C.

Background: Informal caregivers represent the foundation of the palliative care workforce and are the main providers of end of life care. Financial pressures are among the most serious concerns for many carers and the financial burden of end of life caregiving can be substantial. Methods: The aim of this critical debate paper was to review and critique some of the key evidence on the financial costs of informal caregiving and describe how these costs represent an equity issue in palliative care.

BACKGROUND: Family caregivers play an important role in the care of patients receiving palliative care, yet little is known about the financial impact of family caregiving in this context. A lack of existing validated tools for collecting data on the costs of family caregiving in palliative care has resulted in a weak and limited evidence base. The aim of the study was to describe the development and initial piloting of a new survey tool which captures data on the costs of family caregiving in palliative care: the Costs of Family Caregiving (COFAC) questionnaire.

The impact of informal care responsibilities on the willingness and ability of caregivers to undertake paid employment has been the Subject of a number of studies. In contrast, the effect of employment status on willingness to undertake informal care has been less well explored. This paper concentrates on this less-studied direction of causality using the data provided by 15 waves of the British Household Panel Survey. We find that employment participation and earnings both impact negatively on willingness to supply informal care.

Objective: To review non-drug treatments for dementia; to provide a source of evidence for informal carers who want ideas about non-drug approaches for dementia, that they might try or that they could try to access. The systematic review addresses: what non-drug treatments work and what do they work for? What non-drug treatments might work and what for? What non-drug treatments do not work?

Aims: The worldwide phenomenon of an ageing population has considerable consequences for health and health care; leading to greater demand for long-term care and support from families for older relatives. In the UK this, together with the preference for dependent older people to be cared for in the community, has led to the growth of intermediate care services (ICS) that bridge hospital and home offering rehabilitation and care. However, there has been limited in-depth exploration of carer perspectives of these services.